Transformation and shifts in production landscapes for livelihood improvements in the Sahel: building a partnership in research

The agro-ecosystems of the semi-arid West Africa region provide the livelihoods for some of the most poor and vulnerable people in the world.

Within this low-productivity area 'islands' of successful land management have shown that there are untapped opportunities to upgrade the livelihoods of people in these environnments and out-scale these farming systems. However, little is understood at present about how such improvements in the farming system productivity will effect on- and off-farm ecosystem resources.

This proposal aims to begin developing a partnership to address this knowledge gap and take the first steps to identifiying how changes to the farming systems in these regions will effect the wider environment. In this proposed project a research partnership will be established between the Centre for Ecology, Law and Policy (CELP), University of York, (UK), Centre Régional d'Enseignement Spécialisé en Agriculture (CRESA), University of Niamey, (Niger), The Institut de l'Environnement et de Recherches Agricoles (INERA) (Burkina Faso), the Stockholm Environment Institute at the University of York (UK), the Stockholm Resilience Centre (Stockholm University, Sweden) and Centre for International Cooperation (Vrije University, the Netherlands).

The aim of the project is to build a longer term partnership around joint research studying the opportunities and effects on overall landscape productivity and ecosystem services through the upgrading of Sahelian agro-ecosystems.

Can farmers' livelihoods improve in a sustainable way, accounting for both on and off-farm ecosystem resources, functions and services? Why has there been a trend of 'greening' in farming systems in some areas of Sahel but not others?

The project activities in this initial 12-month period will be on:

strengthening of the partnership through mutual knowledge exchange through small joint research initiatives

the development of a 3-year research proposal allowing the partnership to investigate effectively the proposed research theme.